1. Oil production in the United States satisfies only half of the country's needs; the rest is imported. If importswere cut off, what changes would you expect to occur in your lifestyle?

If oil imports were cut off, the changes to my lifestyle and to the United States would bedevastating. Gasoline prices would skyrocket. This would force me and others to curtailour driving. I might have to rely on public transportation; however, the cost of saidtransportation would also increase. There would be gas rationing as the governmentwould need to have gas for the military and other essentials to keep the governmentrunning. Prices for other goods such as food would also increase as it would becomemore expensive to ship items from place to place.

2. Investigate how geophysicist M. King Hubbert predicted in 1956 that annual U.S. oil production wouldpeak in the early 1970s (the actual peak occurred in 1971). Also, investigate the debate over whether thesame predictive technique can be applied to world oil supplies. When do you think world oil productionwill reach its peak? Or has it done so already?

3. Many hydrothermal mineral deposits of copper, gold, silver, and other metals have been found in thecountries bordering the Pacific Ocean. Can you offer an explanation for this remarkable concentration? Ifyou were part of a team of exploration geologists looking for large copper deposits, where would you focusyour search?

4. Given that we are now dependent on nonrenewable resources of energy and minerals and that the world'spopulation continues to increase, how do you think human societies will adjust in the future? Do we have aresource problem or a population problem (or both)?

5. Some people think that sustainable development is not a useful concept because it may be impossible toimplement—or even to define—in the case of nonrenewable resources. Others think that it is an extremelyimportant concept, if only because it makes us think about the needs of future generations in planningresource management. What do you think?